Chris Nolan: '3D is a misnomer'

Gives his reasoning for lack of 3D in The Dark Knight Rises

Chris Nolan has given his reasons for the lack of 3D in The Dark Knight Rises – and the whole of his Batman trilogy – saying that there's no need for the format, as films are 3D already.

Speaking to the Director's Guild of America about his upcoming superhero opus and the rest of his career, Nolan explained why he wasn't a fan of 3D, even though the studio would have been more than happy for The Dark Knight Rises to be shot in this way.

"Warner Bros would have been very happy, but I said to the guys there that I wanted it to be stylistically consistent with the first two films and we were really going to push the IMAX thing to create a very high-quality image," said Nolan.

"I find stereoscopic imaging too small scale and intimate in its effect. 3D is a misnomer. Films are 3D. The whole point of photography is that it's three-dimensional."

3D is hard to embrace

He does note that 3D has its place but just not in movies. "The thing with stereoscopic imaging is it gives each audience member an individual perspective.

"It's well suited to videogames and other immersive technologies, but if you're looking for an audience experience, stereoscopic is hard to embrace. I prefer the big canvas, looking up at an enormous screen and at an image that feels larger than life."

Interestingly, Nolan admits that his style of shooting is actually complementary to the 3D experience, although it's unlikely we will see any of his films this way.

"One of the things that happened when the craze came back was various aspects of conversion. The way I shoot film is actually very conducive to converting to 3-D because I'm always thinking of the camera as a participant.

"I don't use zoom lenses, for example, so I don't reframe using the zoom. Instead, we always move the camera physically closer and put a different focal length on."